Friday, May 6, 2016

THE CROWN PROPHECY by M.D. Laird Excerpt

Eve Franklin is a normal teenager until she visits a hidden world with her friend Will Farley, a Guardian of Arkazatinia, and her life takes an unexpected turn. Eve asks a question which alters her destiny and sets her upon a course fraught with peril. Her path is not all adventure and Eve finds adjusting to her new life difficult. Lonely and unhappy, she seeks the friendship of Calab, a moody and heavily conflicted demon, whose advice is … unconventional.

As the threat against her becomes imminent, Eve must learn what she can about the Crown Prophecy to prevent the Crown falling into the hands of the enemy. Can she trust Calab and can she learn what she needs to know in time?

Chapter I

February 2003

“Where are we going?” asked Eve as she followed Will through the front door. The gravel crunched under his heavy footfalls as Will made his way quickly to his father’s car parked in the driveway.

“It’s hard to explain,” he replied as he climbed into the driver’s seat and slammed the key into the ignition. “Just get in.”

Eve climbed into the car’s passenger seat. She had barely closed the door before she was pinned in her seat as Will accelerated away from the house. She quickly pulled on her seatbelt. “Are we going after that thing? That man?” she asked.

Will sucked in breath impatiently and said, “We’re going to ask for help from some people called the Procnatus.”

“Who?”

“It’s complicated,” replied Will, “you won’t understand.”

“Why?” asked Eve, who was now feeling thoroughly confused with the turn the morning had taken and Will, who was clearly under pressure, lacked the patience for explaining anything. She pushed him nonetheless and said, “Tell me.”

“They’re like another species. They’re called thorian,” replied Will in almost a growl, a surge of irritation had struck him as he narrowly escaped a head-on collision with a truck while overtaking another car. “They look like us, but they’re not human. They’re stronger and faster, and they’re immortal.”

“You’re right, I don’t understand,” said Eve, feeling her breath quicken and wishing she had brakes in her foot well as Will—who had passed his driving test only days before—almost hit another oncoming vehicle. “What are they?”

“I told you; they’re another species.”

“That makes no sense. How can there be another species of people?”

Will drove the car into a multi-storey carpark; he pulled the ticket from the machine to raise the barrier and sped up the levels to find an available space. After parking, they ran down four flights of foul-smelling stairs, entered the street and tore towards the train station. Will purchased two open returns for the next train to Milton Keynes, and they headed for the platform.

“No, you’re probably right,” Will said. He gave her a thin smile before continuing. “There is a world located above our world, and it is home to the thorian who I mentioned earlier and some others. The world has continents like our world; the one we are going to is called Arkazatinia. It is split up into wards, each controlled by a different group of thorian who have a ruler. We’re going to see the Procnatus thorian ruler.”